Topic: Killing Strains U.S.-Kyrgyz Military Ties

Team Infidel

USA Today
December 19, 2006
Pg. 13


Kyrgyzstan's president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, called for renegotiating the 2001 agreement that governs the status of U.S. servicemembers in his country. The call came after the United States rejected a demand that an Air Force security officer who shot and killed a local resident at Manas Air Base near Bishkek be stripped of diplomatic immunity and prosecuted under Kyrgyz law. The U.S. Embassy said the officer's case will be handled under the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice. Kyrgyz law enforcement officers could submit questions in advance and attend an interrogation conducted by U.S. officials at the base, the embassy said.
The officer killed a truck driver Dec. 6 after the man allegedly threatened him with a knife. Bakiyev also said the Manas base, which supports operations in nearby Afghanistan, should be closed since hostilities there have subsided since 2001-2002.

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